Nvidia questions new iPad graphics claims

Things you might also like

Nvidia has called into question claims made by Apple at the launch of the new iPad. Apple said the new Apple A5X chipset offered four times better graphics performance than the Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset.

Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide marketing, displayed a graph showing the comparison as the California-based company introduced its third-generation iPad tablet.

But rather than talking about clock speed or RAM, Apple drew attention to the GPU and the fact it is quad-core and pitched it against the Tegra 3, which can be found in many of 2012's headline Android devices.

Understandably, Nvidia has questioned the validity of these claims in a comment to ZDNet: "We don’t have the benchmark information," said Ken Brown for Nvidia.

"We have to understand what the application was that was used. Was it one or a variety of applications? What drivers were used? There are so many issues to get into with benchmark."

"At some point it will become more clear what the performance really is," said Brown. "For now, Apple has a really generic statement."

One of the devices that uses the Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset is the Asus Transformer Prime. Amusingly, Asus candidly added its own thoughts on the matter via Twitter, stating "New Apple #ipadhd to have a quad-core GPU. Darn! The ASUS Transformer's GPU is only 12-cores..."

Perhaps Apple's aim was to divert attention from the A5X dual core processor, against the 4-Plus-1 arrangement of the Nvidia quad-core chip?

Of course, we'll be bringing you a full review of the new iPad very shortly, or you could read our review of the Transformer Prime, the first Tegra 3 tablet.

Update: An Nvidia spokesperson has issued this statement.

"It's nice to hear Apple compare themselves to Tegra 3. It truly underscores the importance of graphics, which is what we've been saying all along."